Facebook follows Twitter, launches verified accounts

Only the famous need apply

Facebook is to roll out a new verification service for celebrities on the site, offering them the chance to use a nickname if they so wish.

Unlike Twitter's verification service, there won't be any badges given to verified accounts but if the account is verified then the user will have much more control over it.

It will also mean that their profile on the site is expanded, with verified users appearing more in Facebook's 'People to Subscribe To' lists.

A spot of accounting

According to TechCrunch, the initial rollout of verified accounts will be chosen by Facebook so it won't be something you can request at first, even if you think yourself famous enough.

To get verified, a user will have to upload some sort of ID like a passport or driving licence. Once this is uploaded and then verified, Facebook said it would dispose of the information immediately.

The verification move comes a good three years after Twitter began rolling out its verified accounts – although when a fake Wendi Deng Murdoch account was verified in January it did seem to ridicule the whole system.

Facebook is said to be looking closely at what pseudonyms will be used on the site. If a celebrity goes by a different moniker, such as Marshall Mathers as Eminem, then this will be allowed. But apparently you just can't go and give yourself a new nickname.